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Local cemeteries adapt to increase in cremations
YOUNGSTOWN
Within the next few years, it’s expected that more than half of Americans who die will be cremated.
While experts say the trend has been slower to reach the Mahoning Valley, local cemeteries have been adapting to changes to end-of-life traditions.
“We’re preparing for it in a big way,” said Ken Sommers, superintendent of Tod Homestead Cemetery on Belmont Avenue, which recently invested $700,000 in a memorial garden that can hold more than 1,800 cremated remains.
“We did maybe five to 10 cremations a year up until 10 to 15 years ago, then it started increasing,” he said. “We’re up to doing between 35 to 40 cremations a year.”
Nationally, cremation is estimated to be used for more than 45 percent of deaths, up from 36.2 percent in 2008 and 3.5 percent in 1960, according to the Cremation Association of North America. In Ohio, 41.2 percent of deaths in 2013 resulted in cremation.
People choose cremation over traditional burial for varied reasons: flexibility for planning services, expenses, tradition, indecision, family members being more spread out, or even environmental considerations.
“I think a lot has to do with expense; it is a less-expensive way to be buried or entombed in some type of mausoleum,” said Frank Cardon, sales manager for Calvary Cemetery on South Belle Vista Avenue.
The cemetery has added cremation “niches” and has an area dedicated to cremation burials.
Although the trend has forced cemeteries to adapt, those who operate them don’t see cremation as a bad thing.
“I really don’t see it either way. To each his own,” Cardon said. “We’re just trying to satisfy their needs as best we can.”
“I see no downside because actually myself, as someone who’s worked at a cemetery for 38 years, I want to be cremated,” Sommers said.
One aspect of cremation that can be an issue, however, is memorialization.
“It’s got significance. [The burial process] means a lot to people,” said Tom Masters, board president for Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery on Market Street in Boardman.
Forest Lawn now has cremation niches and has changed its policy so cremated remains for up to four people can go into a single grave.
The issue, he says, is that people who choose cremation often procrastinate when it comes to finding a final resting place for the remains.
A 2006 survey by the Cremation Association of North America found that just 15.8 percent of cremations were memorialized in a cemetery.
“Cremation gives people options, and then indecision sets in,” Masters said. “Then they remain at home and never interred.”
“It’s going to destroy [genealogy] because we’re record-keepers,” he said.
Walking through Forest Lawn, Masters gestured at the burial sites of his parents, former neighbors and old friends. “No matter where you walk, you see some tie-in to the community,” he said.
It also affects business for cemeteries, Masters says, partly attributing recent financial difficulties at Forest Lawn to the upward trend in cremation.
Others don’t see cremation as much of a financial setback.
“I wouldn’t want to say it’s impacted our business; it’s just our business is changing a little bit,” Cardon said.
“I don’t see it affecting us here for many years to come, but at some point, yes, it will,” said Sommers.
“It’s coming, and we all better be prepared for it,” he said.